Critic of White House Ethics Let AT&T Give Him Favors

Ever since he was a boy, Representative Dan Burton dreamed of playing golf in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Tournament, in California. After 16 years in Congress, Mr. Burton finally got his wish in January, thanks to an invitation from its sponsor, the AT&T Corporation, which also sponsored a fund-raising dinner for Mr. Burton, Republican of Indiana, at a Pebble Beach restaurant.

The golf outing took place three weeks after Mr. Burton became the chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, which has jurisdiction over the agency that will soon award at least $5 billion in long-distance and local telephone and telecommunications contracts with the Government.

It also happens to be the committee that is leading the House investigation into Democratic fund-raising practices in 1996, to determine whether the Clinton Administration took favors and money from big donors who stood to profit from Federal policy-making.

Mr. Burton acknowledged that his golf outing had left him open to criticism and that his hosts might have been interested in his influential position. But he said, ''I tell you right now, I would not sell my vote for anything and second, I would not sell it for a couple rounds of golf.''

But advocates of reducing the role of campaign contributions in elections criticized Mr. Burton's participation in the tournament, saying it raised questions about his judgment while his committee is leading an inquiry on the issue. They described his actions as a particularly jarring example of how corporations curry favor with Congressional committee chairmen, whose decisions can affect millions of dollars in revenue.

More than once, Mr. Burton said, he sought an invitation from AT&T, the sponsor of the celebrity-studded tournament since 1986. Mr. Burton, who has served on the committee since early 1995, said the corporation finally invited him last August.

''Over the past several years, whenever I talked to anybody at AT&T, I told them that if they ever had a chance, I'd like to play in that tournament,'' said Mr. Burton, who was the only Congressman to take part in the tournament this year. ''Since I was a kid, I've always watched it and wanted to play in it.''

On the eve of the tournament, Mr. Burton also played a practice round with Robert E. Allen, AT&T's chairman and chief executive, at the nearby Monterey Country Club.

The golf invitation to Mr. Burton was part of a larger effort by AT&T to cultivate an array of Government officials involved in controlling the phone contracts, including top officials of the General Services Administration, according to interviews and internal AT&T documents obtained by The New York Times.

When told of Mr. Burton's golf outing, Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, a public policy group and a leading advocate for change in campaign financing, offered this criticism: ''Representative Burton is supposed to be investigating the use of political money to buy White House access and influence and, at the same time, he is out playing the influence-money game himself.''

''This not only undermines his credibility,'' Mr. Wertheimer added, but it also may explain why the Republican leadership is opposing investigations into Congressional uses of political money.

Mr. Burton defended his participation in the tournament, saying it would not affect his objectivity when dealing with telecommunications issues. AT&T has 60 percent of the current Government long-distance contracts, which expire in December 1998, and are worth an estimated $500 million a year. The Sprint Corporation has the other 40 percent.

In the next round of phone contracts, AT&T, the Baby Bell regional telephone companies, Sprint, the MCI Communications Corporation and other companies will compete for the Federal phone contracts into the next century.

But at the same time, Mr. Burton acknowledged that some critics might question his participation, particularly because he has been a vocal and frequent critic of President Clinton, accusing him and other Democrats of brazenly selling access to the White House in exchange for campaign contributions.

''I presume they were interested in me because of my position,'' Mr. Burton said of the AT&T executives who arranged the invitation for him. ''If I thought that in any way it would have influenced me, I would not have participated in the tournament.''

Mr. Burton said AT&T had not paid for his trip to the golf tournament, which ran from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2. He said he had personally split the total cost with his re-election campaign funds.

He used some campaign funds to pay for his trip because he attended three fund-raising events while in California, he said.

The Congressman recalled that the AT&T-sponsored fund-raising dinner at a Pebble Beach restaurant was attended by 25 or 30 people, most of whom were executives and lobbyists for AT&T. AT&T's political action committee also contributed $2,000 to Mr. Burton's re-election campaign fund, he said.

''This is a very big contract, and I do not take this responsibility lightly,'' he said of his legislative role. As an example of his independence, Mr. Burton pointed to the fact that he voted against several provisions that AT&T had wanted in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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Because AT&T did not pay his air fare, Mr. Burton insisted that his participation in the tournament did not violate the 14-month-old House rules that ban Representatives and their staffs from accepting any gifts, including invitations to lunch or dinner at someone else's expense.

An AT&T spokesman, Jim McGann, said the company invited Mr. Burton before he became chairman of the committee overseeing the phone contracts.

''He made it known that he wanted to play and asked us to play and we said sure,'' Mr. McGann said. ''The idea that he was a late entry and we threw him in there after we learned of his chairmanship -- that is just not true.''

Mr. Burton said he and Mr. Allen had not discussed telecommunications policy while playing golf at Monterey, nor did he discuss it with anyone at the AT&T fund-raiser.

''I never talked with them about anything involving telecommunications,'' Mr. Burton said. ''We talked about golf. I don't want even the appearance of impropriety.''

For AT&T lobbyists, the chance to help Mr. Burton realize a lifelong dream had obvious allure. The awarding of the next round of phone contracts by the General Services Administration, which Mr. Burton's committee oversees, involves high stakes and highly contentious issues.

The Government needs to decide how quickly it will allow local phone companies to compete for the long-distance contracts. At the same time, AT&T, MCI and Sprint are seeking permission to compete for local government phone contracts against companies like the Ameritech Corporation and the Bell Atlantic Corporation.

On Thursday, Mr. Burton's committee held its first hearing to begin determining the scope of services that would be provided. In his remarks, he said, ''This committee takes its oversight of Federal procurement seriously, and we view this program as one of our most important oversight responsibilities.''

At a time when the Federal Government has been making decisions on deregulation measures and multibillion-dollar Federal phone service contracts, the telecommunications industry was the second biggest contributor to both political parties in the last two years. In soft money alone, phone corporations gave a total of $1.5 million to the Democrats and $1.6 million to the Republicans, Federal Election Commission records show. Only the tobacco industry contributed more soft money -- the unlimited corporate, individual and union donations -- to both parties.

When told about Mr. Burton's participation in the AT&T tournament and his round of golf with Mr. Allen, several competitors of AT&T declined to say very much about it.

''The timing is curious, but that is as far as I will go,'' said Barbara Connor, the president of Bell Atlantic-Federal Systems.

Tim Long, a lobbyist for MCI, said, ''It's strange the way this works, isn't it?''

AT&T does not limit its lobbying efforts to Congressional leaders. In a series of internal documents, AT&T listed top officials of the Federal Telecommunications Service as part of a ''target audience'' at several cultural and industry events in Washington and around the country. The Federal Telecommunications Service, which is part of the General Services Administration, will oversee the bidding process for the Government phone contracts. It also oversees the current contracts.

In one instance, AT&T paid $250 for tickets for John Okay, the deputy commissioner of the Federal Telecommunications Service, and his wife to attend the National Museum of Women in the Arts Gala last April 12, said Mr. McGann, the AT&T spokesman.

Earlier this week, Hap Connors, a spokesman for the General Services Administration, said that the Okays attended the function as ''guests of a friend and former colleague of Mr. Okay's, who is now employed by AT&T.'' A supervisor had given permission to Mr. Okay to attend, Mr. Connors said.

After inquiries from The New York Times, Mr. Connors said an ethics official at the General Services Administration had concluded that Mr. Okay's attendance at the event violated the gift ban. On Thursday, Mr. Okay repaid $250, the value of the tickets, to AT&T, Mr. Connors said.

Mr. McGann said AT&T had occasionally invited Government employees to industry and cultural events. He said it afforded AT&T employees ''the chance to improve our understanding of the needs of current and prospective customers.'' But Mr. McGann said the company ''complies with both the letter and spirit of Government contracting laws and regulations.''

In other documents about events in Denver and Washington, AT&T also focused on Robert J. Woods, the commissioner of the Federal Telecommunications Service. In an interview, Mr. Woods said it was not uncommon for corporations to put together ''target lists'' of Government officials.

For example, Mr. Woods said he was invited to dinner with several AT&T lobbyists while attending the Summit on Service to the Citizen in Denver. He said he had refused the invitation, but he said he had joined several lobbyists for a drink at the bar. ''I paid for my drinks,'' he said.